On Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:26:06 +0000, Mike wrote:

On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:50:18 +1300, Malcolm Moore
wrote:

Many europeans express a decimal point by using a comma. In your
example above 1,6 is the same as 1.6

It's not 'Europeans' it's an ISO standard, ISO being the
*International* Standards Organisation, ANSI (and Standards New
Zealand) being member bodies of ISO

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_in_International_Organization_for_Standa rdization

I don't doubt that such an ISO standard exists. However, just because
Standards NZ (for example) is a member of ISO does not mean that the
ISO standard is automatically adopted for use.

Yes, using commas for decimal points is loopy but the rest of the
metric planet (outside the USA) in the Engineering profession have
been doing it that way and have been for many, many years - The ISO
standard has been in place for around 20 years although places like
the UK only adopted it as a national standard in 2002.

Not all parts of the metric planet outside the USA use the comma as a
decimal point, for example Aust & NZ. I wonder if any UK adoption is
a result of EU harmonisation. Having said that. I have recent drawings
from UK manufacturers that still use the full stop.

Along with other number formatting principles inherent in the standard
there should be no ambiguity, nor misreading of a drawing due to a
speck of ink or a badly placed fold.

The electronics industry often uses the multiplier to avoid such
problems. eg a 2.2nF capacitor is written as 2n2 The F is usually
implied by the capacitor symbol. Likewise 2k2 for a 2.2kohm resistor
etc.

--
Regards
Malcolm
Remove sharp objects to get a valid e-mail address